Loyola Generativity Scale (LGS) Test
How the Scales are Structured
Who Usually Takes This Test?
See How You Compare
Below is a preview of how scores are typically distributed across each scale.
Example Questions From the Test
- Disagree
- Somewhat disagree
- Somewhat agree
- Agree
- Disagree
- Somewhat disagree
- Somewhat agree
- Agree
- Disagree
- Somewhat disagree
- Somewhat agree
- Agree
Loyola Generativity Scale (LGS) Test - Description and methodology of the test
People considering how to invest their time, experience, or attention in others may use the Loyola Generativity Scale (LGS) Test to support personal reflection. This generativity test indicates the strength of the orientation measured here and can help someone consider choices involving mentoring, community participation, or long-term contribution. Its summary offers a starting point for deciding what kind of involvement feels meaningful.
What This Assessment Explores
The questionnaire examines generativity as motivation to be involved in other people’s lives, exert influence, and leave a legacy. In this generativity questionnaire, items connect everyday experiences with usefulness, responsibility, productivity, and continuity. Higher results indicate a stronger desire to pass on experience and contribute to the future; lower results indicate weaker generativity.
The result is reported on the Generativity scale from 0-3, with Low 0-1.4, Moderate 1.41-2.05, and High 2.06-3. The statements cover these aspects:
- Knowledge and skills show a wish to teach what one has learned.
- Influence and responsibility reflect how strongly actions are felt to affect people, communities, or society.
- Care, creativity, and productivity describe efforts to support others and make useful contributions.
- Continuity and legacy concern whether positive accomplishments may outlast the present.
Methodology and Scientific Basis
Each item uses four ordered response options, moving from Disagree to Agree, although the wording is not uniform: some statements describe an absence of impact, responsibility, or future legacy. The displayed Generativity result indicates generative orientation, but the questionnaire does not document how individual responses are converted into it.
The closest published reference is the Loyola Generativity Scale (LGS), associated with McAdams and de St. Aubin (1992). The online questionnaire is conceptually consistent with that work, but it is not a documented adaptation of the published instrument. McAdams, de St. Aubin, and Logan (1993) connect generativity with adult development, while McAdams, Hart, and Maruna (1998) describe its broader psychological structure.
No norm-based standardization is stated for this online format, so its bands are descriptive categories rather than population percentiles. As a self-report generativity scale, the result can shift with current roles, opportunities, cultural expectations, self-awareness, and candor. It is best used as a reflective snapshot, not a complete account of a person’s motives or capacity.
- McAdams, D. P., & de St. Aubin, E. (1992). A theory of generativity and its assessment through self-report, behavioral acts, and narrative themes in autobiography. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62(6), 1003–1015. 10.1037/0022-3514.62.6.1003
- McAdams, D. P., de St. Aubin, E., & Logan, R. L. (1993). Generativity among young, midlife, and older adults. Psychology and Aging, 8(2), 221–230. 10.1037/0882-7974.8.2.221
- McAdams, D. P., Hart, H. M., & Maruna, S. (1998). The anatomy of generativity. In D. P. McAdams & E. de St. Aubin (Eds.), Generativity and adult development: How and why we care for the next generation (pp. 7–43). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
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